The present invention relates to the manufacture of fillered bead assemblies and, more particularly, to a continuous operating system which permits the assembly of bead filler material to the tire bead to form a fillered bead assembly for subsequent use in a second stage or single stage tire building machine for building vehicle tires.
In the past, it has been the practice in the formation of bead filler rings or fillered bead assemblies, that a tire bead is positioned on a cylindrical filler applicator and then a length of preformed filler material is drawn onto the filler applicator as the filler applicator is rotated. With the recent requirement for fillered bead assemblies with much greater cross-sectional heights and uniform fillers for radial tires and especially radial truck tires, this method is less than desirable. As the filler height to thickness ratio increases, it is extremely difficult to stand and hold the filler in an upright position on the outer circumference of a bead. Also, it is difficult to make a splice due to the varying degree of stretch which must be put into the filler from its base, where it rests on the bead, to its peak or outer circumference. Even if the newer method of fillering, utilizing a turn-up bladder, is used, the production time lost during the expansion of the turn-up bladder to position the filler material about the ring and then the subsequent removal of the bead and filler ring from the filler applicator has severely restricted and limited the number of bead filler rings that can be manufactured by this method of manufacture.